Numberminds' Blog on Analytics, Data Visualisation, Training, eLearning and Microsoft Office.http://www.numberminds.com/blog
Management Information. Business Analytics, Project Management, Training, Office365, Microsoft Office, VBA and Web AnalyticsThu, 30 Nov 2017 09:49:25 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.6Microsoft Office 365 offers more than you thinkhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/fuDKnyQtzkg/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/microsoft-office-365-offers-more-than-you-think/#respondThu, 30 Nov 2017 09:49:25 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1913Continue reading Microsoft Office 365 offers more than you think→]]>Do you remember the days when upgrading your Microsoft Office solution was expensive? I do. I also remember having to push IT to allow me to have Microsoft Access to develop on, but, it “wasn’t part of the standard Microsoft Office package”.

Now unless you’ve been living under a rock. Office 365 provides you with the full suite of products and you simply wouldn’t believe how flexible it’s solutions are. Or how many solutions are available.

“Need Visio for a few months?” Easily done and you don’t have to fork our hundreds of pounds for a software version.

We are seeing more and more success stories of banks, small businesses in pretty much every vertical benefit from Office 365. Imagine you’ve left your laptop at home and you need to access your emails? Easily done. Log onto the Office portal? What about your files? Yep there are there… What if this ‘loaned’ PC doesn’t have the right software. No problem – use office apps (for most of the Microsoft Office applications).

Numberminds have been a Microsoft partner for years and we’ve sold Office 365 solutions to a number of clients. Provided consultancy for even more.

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/microsoft-office-365-offers-more-than-you-think/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/microsoft-office-365-offers-more-than-you-think/Google Trends improves and adds more value to your reportshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/efpahVIHiOI/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/google-trends-improves-and-adds-more-value-to-your-reports/#respondWed, 29 Nov 2017 23:07:37 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1910Continue reading Google Trends improves and adds more value to your reports→]]>According to TechCrunch. Google Trends has now improved it’s searchable data. Not only can you trend what people are searching for on Google by country. You can now further segment this data by Images, Shopping and even Youtube.

Now some of you may be asking why is this important to a web analyst. Well it’s simple. Not all web analysts are afforded the tools to add context to their reports. Let’s face it external sources of information particularly real-time data is expensive.

Google Trends allows you to compare external figures with your own onsite search reporting and/or product views. So, if people are searching for “LCD TVs” and you’re product views for the same are tanking aswell as your onsite search. Then this will afford you the insight to look at causes.

Let’s say that your marketing spend is focused elsewhere.

Let’s say that your pricing is no longer competitive

or it could be that a competitor is simply got a more attractive offer.

This is great news for those analysts that are feeling rather isolated in their reporting. Remember that reports showing year-on-year performance are great but, are limited in terms of actions. It doesn’t include the wider picture which web analysts need to provide to stakeholders. Whether asked for it or not !

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/google-trends-improves-and-adds-more-value-to-your-reports/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/11/google-trends-improves-and-adds-more-value-to-your-reports/Always Ask Questionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/tezh7UEiIho/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/always-ask-questions/#respondWed, 25 Oct 2017 01:11:12 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1900Continue reading Always Ask Questions→]]>I am known for always asking questions. Perhaps I ask more than the average person but, what always amazes me is the questions that people don’t ask me.

Analysts are the lifeblood of any organisation. They are the ones in the know. They are the ones that can tell you what is happening and in a lot of cases – what will happen, predictive analytics.

Imagine the scene. A director arrives at his desk in the morning and he sees a standard report (directors tend, in my experience, to beat most people into the office, so they are the ones that will find out details first). This report shows that there has been a downturn in sales.

Now the analyst comes in and not only has the same report to review but, also an urgent email from the HIPPO saying “what the hell is happening”.

So if directors rely on analysts then marketing managers will. Senior managers will. Developers will. So it’s the analysts job to anticipate these questions.

One of the best things Analysts can do is set up alerts on reports. Ensure that they know that if the sales report is showing a trend down. Then they immediately know what to look for:

Was the sales pipeline down?

Are products out of stock?

If you’re an ecommerce site, was the website down?

Was traffic down?

National holidays?

You need to have this information at this fingertips. Remember anticipate the questions that you are going to be asked.

Never stop asking questions but…… more importantly…. never stop anticipating.

If you want to ask the team at Numberminds then email us at speaktotheteam@numberminds.com

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/always-ask-questions/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/always-ask-questions/eLearning and Web Analytics means Successhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/Ih-P62fN00c/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/elearning-and-web-analytics-means-success/#respondWed, 04 Oct 2017 00:36:12 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1845Continue reading eLearning and Web Analytics means Success→]]>eLearning isn’t becoming a big thing. It already is. You just have to look at how much Linkedin paid for Lynda.com to expand their appeal to professionals.

Individuals are paying more attention to managing their own personal development rather than relying on businesses. Most larger businesses have their own learning and development teams and their method of delivery is guess what… elearning!

So not only does Numberminds provide consultancy for eLearning we also measure it. Otherwise how do you know people are achieving success? By showing completion? Great… that proves people are sitting there and “watching” stuff. That shows success. It doesn’t highlight problems.

Did you think that web analytics could be the answer? Well YES IT CAN!

You can apply tags to see how long people took to play the videos, whether the whole thing was watched, how long the entire course (multiple videos) took to view.

Now imagine that you’ve implemented analytics on your learning solution. You can now identify those users that are regularly logging on. Now that is encouraging to see that your staff want to learn. Now imagine that you have that intelligence and now you can segment your learners.

Mrs Jones is the team secretary of the accountancy team. She uses her free time to avail herself of the learning solutions.

Analytics will enable you to identify Mrs Jones as a user. But it doesn’t end there. Let’s take Mrs Jones’ test scores she demonstrates that she has the right mind for greater things. However, hasn’t either realised this her own potential or not being given the opportunity to excel. Analytics will identify her to management. Who knows she could be an amazing project manager, a mentor, an executive.

Either way the analytics within eLearning can help businesses grow from within. Numberminds can help you with that analytical process. Give us a call.

The retail landscape is changing. Traditional shops are closing because they cannot compete with the internet. Woolworths and BHS are just two examples of massive companies which have disappeared from the high street in the UK.

However, this is where brand power and customer loyalty can come into their own. Now if your customers are not internet enabled then clearly that causes an issue. However, I know a large volume of silver surfers and in some respects they are more internet enabled than people in eCommerce. I cannot count how many times my mother or father has pointed me in the direction of an offer or a website which proved ‘fruitful’.

That isn’t going to save the highstreet becoming a pavement swarmed with coffee shops, fast food places or chained restaurants with free wifi.

Businesses need to re-evaluate their online presence. Is it a separate channel or a collaborative effort to service customers? Could you make a sales store a demonstration store? How would you replicate this online? I believe that AO.com has done this very well with their online instructional videos for many of their products.

From personal experience this was a great influencer to purchase when the kitchen at my house was done and I needed new white goods.

What about in the restaurant game where you can add value by selling recipes and cookery lessons?

To me the internet isn’t about being the only sales channel. It’s about a brand providing a different and appealing experience. Let’s face it – we as consumers have less and less time to do anything and if someone is going to take more than two or three minutes to convince me to buy something then I’m sorry I’m gone. Nothing to do with attention span. Nothing to do with impatience or attitude. It’s to do with – “Wow I’ve got so much do to and so little time to do it in”

I even read a piece today on experimental marketing whereby a CMO is quoted as saying that traditional marketing is dead and “we’ve only 6 seconds of a human’s attention span which is less than a goldfish”.

So now the consumers are more demanding than ever. A single poor experience won’t just affect the sale to that individual, but that individual will tell their friends and then then will tell some of their friends and suddenly you’ve done a social media battle on your hands.

Customer experience should be at the forefront of any strategy. This includes:

will you let your customer service their account online

will you listen to your customers and engage with them on a personal basis (via their chosen communication channel)

will you engage with them when deciding new products and services

will you make the purchase path as easy as possible including wish lists, remember their card details, allow third party payments

The list is almost endless when you look at the whole picture but, it’s also very sector / brand specific.

To conclude – a website isn’t a static thing. You need to listen to the customers to change it. I’m not just talking new products but offering them a new experience to keep them brand loyal. Be brave, Be different. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose. Regardless of which you will learn and more importantly you will learn about your customers.

Now I am going to say this from the start. I am not an accountant I just happen to be very good at finding solutions to problems and relatively good at Excel.

I say relatively good because I know people who are far better than me.

I help a small family run business optimise their VAT process. Previously everything was written down on a bit of paper and then all the receipts put into a file with invoices and finally the analysis on top.

Now how time consuming does that sound. Maybe a bit too old school given the fact that computers have been affordable for many years. It took some convincing but, after interviewing and documenting the process I simply created a spreadsheet and taught they how to use it. Thus saving 40 hours a quarter on VAT returns alone.

Am sure that everyone knows someone, a small business perhaps, a relative, who is doing something in a way which hasn’t been reviewed for years maybe even decades. Every time you see them you just think to yourself “I know how to do that better, but he/she is happy doing it their way”.

I certainly do!

No imagine the scene.

Inputting data into a spreadsheet is dull yes, but you got to remember that data input is a necessary evil. You also have to remember that the input isn’t the end result.

So I have the following columns:

Column A = Item Number

Column B = Description

Column C = Gross

Column D = VAT

Column E = Net

Column F = Indicator

Now I’ve highlighted the Net field because this is the main calculation field. When you look at receipts what most people would do is enter the gross figure. So if you look at the above screengrab – all that is required is a “Description” and “Gross”. The rest can either be filled-down or calculated.

NET calculation is GROSS / 1.2

VAT calculation is GROSS – NET

Obviously, you have to do a cross check against the total VAT of the receipt (some items are VAT free and other have a different rate). The input needs to match the receipts.

Don’t be afraid if you need to manually enter the VAT figure. The calculations are simple enough to either COPY and PASTE FORMULA or re-write the calculations.

Now we come to the indicator. This may seem something that can be ignored but, it can’t. This indicator (“I” or “E”) means Income and Expenditure. You can also have “R” for Refund/Credit but, let’s keep this example simple.

Now let’s fast forward….

You’ve input all your information you want to sum up that information – however you want to use criteria.

The answer is the SUMIF function.

=SUMIF(sumrange,criteria,sumrange)

the SUMRANGE is the column with the indicator in

the CRITERIA is “E” (in quotes) or “I” if you’re looking at income

Finally SUMRANGE is the GROSS, NET or VAT. You’ll need to do a seperate SUMIF for each of them and another three for INCOME.

Should you have any questions then please do get in touch via the Numberminds Contact Us form. We also offer CIS and PAYROLL consultancy.

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/optimising-your-time-when-doing-vat-quarterly-returns/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/optimising-your-time-when-doing-vat-quarterly-returns/Exit Page Analysishttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/s2b60QldjyY/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/exit-page-analysis/#respondSun, 01 Oct 2017 21:56:10 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1839Continue reading Exit Page Analysis→]]>Websites have a rather confusing objective. They need to streamline the conversion process and also keep the customers on the website as long as possible.

So in short – “buy quick but hang around”.

The customer journey is becoming increasingly important but, a great first step is understanding where do people leave. This is much bigger than understanding ineffective pages which cause a high bounce rate (sessions where there is a single page viewed). So if we segment those out for the moment.

I want to look at pages which cause exits after a journey of several pages. It would also be a great idea to apply some segments then split this by the following:

New Customers

Repeat Customers

Marketing Customers

Natural Search / SEO Customers

Direct Customers

Referral Customers.

So now we have a list of pages which are causing exits and we also have an understanding of how those customers came to the site.

“Are those customers that come from marketing are they browsing more than purchasing? compared to Direct traffic?”

Doesn’t that sound like valuable and actionable intel to you?

What about taking the segments away and just trying to understand which pages (or type of pages e.g. category, search, product, blog, landing) are causing the highest exit rates.

Now if it’s the homepage then you could have a massive problem.

So let’s assume that you’ve done the analysis on page types. If you have a product page which is causing a large exit rate then could it:

Be the offer

Product Availability / Out of Stock

Photos (are they zoomable, only offer 1)

Video reviews (are they being viewed?)

Is the Add to Cart button working?

Now that is something that we can get numbers on and prove to the UX designers that something needs to change.

I’ve not heard of any session replay tools which look at page categories but, if you take several pages which have a high exit rate of the SAME page type look at the session replays. You can see exactly what the customers are doing.

Hopefully (and it should) complement your numbers research.

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/exit-page-analysis/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/exit-page-analysis/eReceipts – what is the benefit?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/YpKOGFAcwnA/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/ereceipts-what-is-the-benefit/#respondSun, 01 Oct 2017 20:37:52 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1834Continue reading eReceipts – what is the benefit?→]]>eReceipts is something that interests us here at Numberminds. I personally am all for reducing the amount of paper in my wallet that isn’t cash.

However, if I’m giving them my personal email address, then what am I letting myself into? Will I be spammed with emails from that brand that I gave it to? Will they sell it to the highest bidder?

Will I actually get offers that are useful? Will it be personalised? How will they target me?

Looking at it from a business’ angle. Environmental benefits from less paper till receipts. Cost savings from ink and paper savings. Marketing opportunities galore?

Numberminds would love to hear your thoughts from:

marketing strategy

customer experience

customer angle

environmental

marketability

Any assistance that you can give us in writing the blog post / whitepaper would be gratefully received.

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/ereceipts-what-is-the-benefit/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/ereceipts-what-is-the-benefit/Microsoft Office – time to upgrade?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/s-uNisuhwv8/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/microsoft-office-time-to-upgrade/#respondSun, 01 Oct 2017 19:07:21 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1828Continue reading Microsoft Office – time to upgrade?→]]>Upgrading software is always a painful experience. Sometimes it’s because of better functionality and sometimes it’s because of different file types.

However, upgrading software becomes essential when you are notified that the updates (security or otherwise would not be forthcoming).

Now with regards to Microsoft Office – the biggest change that happened was when they moved from binary files to XML based files. The coding language changed massively after that making it difficult (until earlier versions were retired) for developers to build a solution for all levels.

]]>http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/microsoft-office-time-to-upgrade/feed/0http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/10/microsoft-office-time-to-upgrade/How much is your data worth?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Numberminds/~3/BhQLbp7qpvQ/
http://www.numberminds.com/blog/2017/09/how-much-is-your-data-worth/#respondThu, 07 Sep 2017 09:19:56 +0000http://www.numberminds.com/blog/?p=1820Continue reading How much is your data worth?→]]>People are giving out personal information very freely these days and it’s usually in respect of getting something back. Think of it this way – how many loyalty cards do you carry? Your store cards do you think you have them because you shop their often and this is an extension to their brand? Do you have them because having a Harrods card is an aspirational thing and they value you personally that much?

Well this is only half the truth and probably only half of half the truth.

Companies want your data because it’s worth a helluva lot more than giving you 5% discount on your next purchase or a free packet of toilet rolls. When you walk into a supermarket or a department store do you think they aren’t tracking your every move and tieing that information back to your store card? Do you think thank banks aren’t looking at your direct debit and standing orders to see who you have other financial products with?

Think again.

The Wall Street Journal has written a piece recently entitled “Verizon wants to build an advertising juggernaut. It Needs your data first”. So this is going to be targeted advertising which is going to earn them billions, if it takes off, and they are going to give “concert tickets and other rewards” for benefitting from your data.

Now excuse me for being dumb -for there are smarter people in the world. But does this make sense? Seemingly irrelevant information that you have – name, age, date of birth, purchasing patterns etc which you technically should own is going to make some firm, some individual a mint?

Surely that is worth something more than a discounted Lady Gaga ticket?

Now data analysts reading this will say “what are you talking about? This is intelligence that we need in order to improve the products and the customer experience.”

“Yes is the answer, but let’s be open and honest and reward our customers justly! Let’s not assume that they are all idiots!”